The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Thursday that N14.2 billion has been saved on personnel cost through the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).
She made this known in Abuja at the ministerial platform to commemorate the 2012 Democracy Day and the one-year anniversary of President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
She listed the savings as a key achievement of the administration recorded at the end of the first quarter of 2012.
She said as at April this year, 94,299 public workers have been captured on IPPIS in 75 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
However, IPPIS was introduced by the Federal Government in 2006 to check the incident of ghost workers in the public service.
The system was conceptualised as a central payment process for all public servants whose emolument is drawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The minister said that government had made remarkable progress in the implementation of Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
She said that 108 MDAs had been integrated on GIFMIS, while 421 officers had been trained on the scheme.
On 2012 budget implementation, Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, said N151billion was released to MDAs in the first quarter.
She said that the ministry had encouraged transparency and accountability through a monthly publication of the revenue allocations of each level of government.
In his remarks, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Ngama, said the ministry achieved a record reduction on disputes related to the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Ngama praised the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for surpassing their revenue targets last year.
According to him, the fourth quarter revenue of FIRS, from October to December 2011 stood at N1.2 trillion, which is 39.71 per cent higher than the Federal Government’s quarterly target revenue.
For the NCS, he said total revenue collected in 2011 was N741.83 billion, out of which, federation account was N430.68 billion and non-federation account was N311.14 billion.
He said that increased anti-smuggling activities resulted in seizure of 5,748 goods, including textiles, poultry, used compressors, furniture and general goods.
The minister put the value of the seizures made from January to December 2011 at N8.4 billion.
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